CUPE backs ex-staff of Just Us coffee co-op

Shay Enxuga and Elijah William (with flags) demonstrate outside the Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op in Grand Pre on April 28. (GLEN PARKER)

The largest union in the country has thrown its weight behind two former Just Us Coffee Roasters Co-op employees seeking to get their jobs back.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees — with 627,000 members — welcomed Shay Enxuga and Elijah Williams at the Nova Scotia division’s 50th annual convention in Greenwich, Kings County, on Tuesday.

Almost 200 delegates were at the convention. They contributed $1,000 to support the Just Us workers’ battle with the fair trade company based in Grand Pre.

“We’ve shored up our support,” said Jason Edwards, Atlantic organizer with Local 2 of the Service Employees International Union. “They think it’s a worthy cause and they donated some money,” Edwards said in an interview Thursday.

“It was pretty rousing. There was a lot of support on the floor.”

He said the donation provides much-needed resources to continue the battle.

“It just helps to know that we don’t have to constantly be digging into our own pockets.”

The donation is less about the money than it is about showing the people involved that “their support isn’t skin deep, that these people really do care,” Edwards said.

“It’s pretty incredible how much people’s spirits were lifted, including the current employees who are still working and grinding it out every day with awkward situations with management. … It was a great morale booster.”

CUPE Nova Scotia president Danny Cavanagh said it was important to stand in solidarity with the workers.

“We will send a clear message to Just Us or any other employer in this province that these kind of tactics will not be tolerated.”

Enxuga and Williams have said they were dismissed from their jobs as baristas at the Halifax coffee shop on Spring Garden Road because they were trying to organize their co-workers to form a union.

They have filed a grievance with the Labour Board of Nova Scotia but are hoping management will return to talks and a solution can be found before a hearing.

Supporters held a demonstration outside the Just Us headquarters in Grand Pre last Sunday.

Debra Moore, general manager of Just Us, said the circumstances that led to two people leaving the company “had nothing to do with unions or union busting.”

She said she thinks the labour board would prefer mediation instead of a hearing.

“There are some real ways to move forward with this, and that’s what we’re working towards. My hope is that common sense will start to rise up.”

Moore said there was discussion about the relationship between co-ops and unions during an investors meeting Sunday.

“We want to be a model in Nova Scotia to see how unions and co-ops can work together.”

Edwards said the union is reviewing options.

“We want to make sure that the company is successful. That’s important to us.”